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Purdue athletes ready to compete at NCAA track and field championships

Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter on Boilers’ 2025-26 season Purdue conducted its first practice on Monday ahead of the upcoming season. Hear what coach Matt Painter said afterwards. WEST LAFAYETTE − Cameron Miller is as ready as he can ever be. The environment this week will not faze the Purdue sprinter in his third trip […]

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WEST LAFAYETTE − Cameron Miller is as ready as he can ever be.

The environment this week will not faze the Purdue sprinter in his third trip to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.

Three months ago, Miller was the bronze medalist in the 200 meters at the NCAA indoor championships.

In a college career that started in 2019 and has spanned three schools, Florida and Louisville before coming to Purdue with his father, who is the Boilermaker head coach, Miller makes no bones about how he wants to go out this week, beginning with Wednesday’s 200-meter semifinals.

“Run sub 20 (seconds) and go for the win,” Miller said before departing for Eugene, Oregon, last week.

Last month in Eugene, Miller ran a personal best 20.12 seconds in the 200-meter preliminaries at the Big Ten Championships. Two years ago, Miller placed eighth in the 200 at the NCAA outdoor championships and last season was 12th. He’s the only participant in this year’s 200-meter race to be competing at the outdoor NCAAs for a third time.

More importantly for Miller, he’s one of four Boilermakers representing the track and field program.

Jalen Elrod, heptathlon

Elrod was heartbroken after missing the NCAA qualifying mark by one point last month. She traveled to Eugene as an alternate. It was announced on Tuesday that an athlete in the heptathlon scratched and she would fill the spot.

“These past few weeks have been the biggest emotional roller coaster of my life,” Elrod said. “When I initially missed the national mark by only one point, I was devastated. It felt like my collegiate career came to such an unsatisfying ending.”

Elrod was an All-American in pentathlon during the indoor season and now she aims to become Purdue’s first heptathlon All-American since Angela Craft in 2001.

“I know we’re going to make some magic happen this weekend,” said Elrod, who competes on Friday and Saturday.

Bode Gilkerson, high jump

The only Indiana native of Purdue’s foursome in Oregon this week, Gilkerson was a two-time state high jump champion at Plainfield and helped the Quakers win the overall team state title in 2022.

Gilkerson cleared 7 feet, 1 3/4 inches at the NCAA East First Round meet in Jacksonville, Florida, marking the first Boiler high jumper to reach nationals since Eric Blackman in 2017.

The sophomore takes the approach of trying to set a personal record every meet. If he’s able to do that on Friday, he believes that bodes well for All-American recognition.

“Coach (Tony) Miller tells us that this competition is like no other,” Gilkerson said. “I’m looking to do the best that I can do. In my mind, that’s going to take me to the top eight.”

Andreas Hantson, decathlon

A native of Estonia, Hantson has the most unique path to ending up in West Lafayette.

He sent out emails with his high school scores and results to college coaches in the United States.

Purdue assistant coach Raffael Craig responded, After viewing a few YouTube videos and reading up on Purdue University, Hantson made a spontaneous decision to leave his home country and move to Indiana.

Now he’s representing the Boilermakers in the most grueling event at the NCAA Championships.

“My goal was to get there last year,” said Hantson, a sophomore. “This year, I had to. I had to do whatever it takes.”

Hantson qualified with 7,686 points at the Bryan Clay Multi-Event meet in April.

“My goal is to do my best in every event, because if I do that, I’m going to get a good score and then, most likely, I’d be a first-team All-American,” Hantson said.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.





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